A photographer was snapping pictures of first graders at an elementary school, making small talk to put them at ease.
“What are you going to be when you grow up?” he asked one little girl.
“Tired”, she said. (J. R. Love, Rushton, Louisiana; www. PreachingToday.com)
Evidently, she had been watching all the adults in her life, working long hours, busy with a million things, and running around from place to place, and concluded that she was going to be just like them: tired.
That’s a hard way to live, isn’t it – Having nothing to look forward to except being tired? Well, I’ve got good news for you! The Bible presents a much better way to live for the believer in Jesus Christ. And if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Hebrews 4, Hebrews 4, where the Believer is promised God’s “rest.”
Hebrews 4:1 Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. (ESV)
Or better, “…should THINK they have failed to reach it. You see, the original audience was going through so much persecution, they THOUGHT they had missed God’s “rest”; they THOUGHT they had failed to reach God’s promised blessings.
But the author of Hebrews tells his audience, which includes you and me, “Don’t think that!” Sure, life is hard right now, but don’t think for a minute that you missed God’s wonderful plan for your life. Don’t lose your hope. Instead…
BE SURE OF GOD’S REST
Be certain that you are entering it. Be confident that you are right now on the way to the glorious future God has for you.
You see, the “rest” here is the rest that comes when Jesus returns to set up His Kingdom.
Until then, this old world is in turmoil. There are wars and rumors of wars and unrest everywhere. God’s people experience trouble and persecution.
But when Jesus comes, the Bible says, “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:6-9).
When Jesus comes to reign on this earth, there will be rest; there will be real peace. Be sure of it, and don’t think for a minute that you have missed it, because you are right now in the process of entering that rest.
Hebrews 4:2 For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. (ESV)
The Israelites in Moses’ day heard the good news of the Promised Land, but they could not enter, because they didn’t believe it. So we too have heard the Good News of Christ’s coming Kingdom, of God’s Rest. The question is: do we believe it or not?
Hebrews 4:3a For we who have believed enter that rest.
Or better, we who have believed are in the process of entering that rest. The verb for “enter” has the idea of continuous action. It’s like God is saying to those believers who suffer, “Don’t give up yet! You’re almost there. Jesus is coming soon, and you will rule and reign with Him in His Kingdom.”
If you believe the Good news, you will make it! If you have put your trust in Christ, who died for you, rose from the grave, and is coming again, then you are right now in the process of entering God’s Rest, and there is nothing that can stop you – not adversity, not persecution, not even death.
However, if you don’t believe the Good News, then you will NOT enter God’s rest no matter how hard you try.
Hebrews 4:3b As he has said, “As I swore in my wrath they [i.e., unbelieving Israel] shall not enter that rest,” although his works were finished from the foundation of the world.
God rested on the seventh day of creation, but unbelieving Israel could find no rest, because they refused to believe the good news about the Promised Land. Then, after God rebuked them for their unbelief, they tried to enter in their own strength, but they were soundly defeated and ended up wandering in the wilderness for 40 years until that whole generation died off. Unbelief keeps you from entering God’s Rest, but for those of you who do believe, there is nothing that can stop you, because you are right now in the process of entering that rest!
A couple of years ago (2016), LeeAdianez Rodríguez-Espada, a 12-year-old girl, accidentally ran a half marathon in Rochester, New York. She had signed up for a 5K run, but was worried she was going to be late, so this 6th grade girl got to the starting line 15 minutes early. There was a group of people already there, so she set off with them and started running.
Lee focused on putting one foot in front of the other and didn't realize until mile four that the finish line was nowhere in sight. Turning to another runner, she asked how much further and learned that she was in the half marathon (13.1 miles) instead of the 5K (or 3.1 miles). However, instead of dropping out, she decided to keep running.
Brendalee Espada, her mother, lost track of her daughter when she went to park the car. When she got to the starting line, her daughter was gone. “She gave me a really big scare,” Espada told reporters. She and the police searched for Lee for nearly two hours.
Then one of the police officers found her while she was still running and told her her family was looking for her. She told him she knew but had to keep running. After she finished the race, her mother found her with a medal around her neck. She finished the race in 2 hours, 43 minutes, and 31 seconds, placing at number 1,885 out of 2,111 finishers, but she was among the youngest to run the race. (Helena Horton, “12 Year Old Girl Accidentally Runs A Half-Marathon After Signing,” The Telegraph News, 4-27-16; AnneClaire Stapleton, “Girl, 12, Accidentally Runs Half Marathon”, CNN.com, 4-27-16; www.PreachingToday.com)
Does your race seem longer and more difficult than you thought? Maybe this isn't the race you signed up for. Even so, don’t quit, because you are nearing the finish line.
If you are a believer, you are right now in the process of entering God’s Rest, and that rest will be wonderful! There is coming a day when you will cease your toilsome labor. The hardships will end, and you will be able to enjoy life forever!
Hebrews 4:4-5 For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” And again in this passage he said, “They shall not enter my rest.” (ESV)
The Bible tells us that God rested on the 7th day of creation. How then can God talk about entering His “rest” thousands of years later when Israel refused to enter the promised land? Obviously, it is still possible for people to enter God’s rest.
Hebrews 4:6-7 Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” (ESV)
When Israel refused to enter God’s Rest, the Promised Land, in 1,500 B.C., God did not close the door completely. 500 years later, in 1,000 B.C., God spoke through David of yet another opportunity to enter His “rest”, because Israel hadn’t found it yet.
Hebrews 4:8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. (ESV)
When Joshua led his generation of Israelites into the promised land, they expected to find “rest” there. They expected to find “rest” from the hardships of the wilderness. They expected to find “rest” from their enemies in a “land flowing with milk and honey” (Deuteronomy 11:9 & 12:9-10). But Joshua never gave them that rest. Soon after Joshua’s death, their enemies attacked again and again and again. Later, Assyria and then Babylon destroyed their cities and carried them away as captives. At the time of the writing of the book of Hebrews, Rome was oppressing the Jewish people. There has never been any rest in the Promised Land, even to this day!
Joshua didn’t give it to them, but there is coming a day when Jesus will bring them rest. When Jesus returns, He will rule the world from the Throne of David in Israel, and He will bring the rest they have been looking for now for 3,500 years!
Hebrews 4:9-10 So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. (ESV)
There is coming a day when every believer will rest from their labors. They will rest from the toil and pain of this age to relax in the next. The best is yet to be for every believer, so don’t for a minute let your current pain block your view of God’s promised rest. Don’t for a minute lose your hope in the future God has planned for you.
Tennessee Williams's short story “Something by Tolstoi,” tells the story of Jacob Brodsky, a shy Russian Jew who runs his father's bookshop. Jacob's dream seemed complete when he married his childhood sweetheart, Lila, a beautiful, exuberant French girl. The life of a bookshop proprietor suited him fine, but not his adventurous young bride. An agent for a vaudeville touring company heard Lila sing and talked her into touring Europe with their show.
In the process of explaining to Jacob that she had to seize this opportunity and leave, she also cleft a chasm-sized hole in his heart. But before she left, he gave her a key to the bookshop and said, “You had better keep this because you will want it someday. Your love is not so much less than mine that you can get away from it. You will come back sometime, and I will be waiting.”
Lila went on the road, and Jacob went to the back of his bookshop. To deaden the pain, he turned to his books as someone else might turn to drugs or alcohol. Weeks turned into years. When fifteen of them had passed, the bell above the bookshop's front door signaled the arrival of a customer. It was Lila.
The bookshop's owner rose to greet her. But to her astonishment, her abandoned husband didn't recognize her and simply spoke like he would to any other customer. “Do you want a book?”
Stunned and trying to maintain her composure, she raised a gloved hand to her throat and stammered, “No—that is—I wanted a book, but I've forgotten the name of it.” Regaining some poise, she continued, “Let me tell you the story—perhaps you have read it and can give me the name of it.”
She then told him of a boy and a girl who had been constant companions since childhood. As teenagers, they fell in love, eventually married, and lived over a bookshop. She told him their whole story—the vaudeville company's offer, the husband's brokenhearted gift of the key, the return of the wife who was never able to part with the key. How, after fifteen years, she finally came to her senses and returned home to him. Then with a desperate plea she said, “You remember it—you must remember it—the story of Lila and Jacob?”
With a vacant, faraway look, he merely said, “There is something familiar about the story. I think I have read it somewhere. It seems to me that it is something by Tolstoi.” Only the heartbreaking, metallic echo of the key dropping to the hard floor interrupted her horrified silence. Lila, having let go of the key as well as her hope, fled the bookshop in tears.
And Jacob returned to his books. (Matt Heart, Life with a Capital L, Multnomah Books, 2014, pp. 39-40; www.Preaching Today.com)
They both had lost their hope, so they gave up on life. Don’t you do the same. If you’re a believer in Jesus Christ, don’t give up your hope. Instead, be certain that God has a great future ahead for you. Be sure of God’s Rest. However, if you’re not sure, then…
STRIVE TO BE SURE OF THAT REST.
Diligently search your own heart for a genuine faith in Christ that assures you of better days ahead with Him. Make sure that you’re a true believer, who can be sure of God’s rest.
Hebrews 4:11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. (ESV)
That’s the disobedience of unbelief. It refers to Israel’s unbelief and therefore their refusal to enter the Promised Land as God commanded. Unbelief kept them from God’s Rest, and unbelief will keep you from God’s Rest, as well.
You see, true faith always demonstrates itself in obedience. So if you’re living your life in clear disobedience of God’s Word, it may be that you don’t really believe what He says. If you’re living with your boyfriend you’re not married to, if you refuse to forgive that one who has hurt you, if you choose to worry instead of praying every time, then you better examine your heart to make sure you’re a true believer.
Don’t count on a religious experience you had in the past. Make sure you’re counting on Christ, and Him alone, for your salvation.
Lord Kenneth Clark is one of Great Britain's most prominent art historians, an author, and the producer of the BBC television series Civilization. In an autobiographical account, Clark writes that when he was living in a villa in France he had a curious episode.
“I had a religious experience,” he said. “It took place in the church of San Lorenzo… [where] for a few minutes, my whole being was radiated by a kind of heavenly joy, far more intense than anything I had ever experienced before. This state of mind lasted for several minutes… but wonderful as it was, [it] posed an awkward problem in terms of action. My life was far from blameless. I would have to reform. My family would think I was going mad, and perhaps after all, it was a delusion, for I was in every way unworthy of such a flood of grace. Gradually the effect wore off and I made no effort to retain it. I think I was right. I was too deeply embedded in the world to change course. But I had ‘felt the finger of God’ quite sure and, although the memory of this experience has faded, it still helps me to understand the joys of the saints.” (Tim Keller, Making Sense of God, Viking, 2016, pages 18-19; www.PreachingToday.com)
How tragic, but at least he’s honest. He claims no real faith in Christ, because (as he said) he was “too deeply embedded in the world to change course.”
However, there are a lot of people – perhaps some of you – that are not so honest. You’ve had a religious experience, perhaps even “felt the finger of God,” but there has been no real change in your life. If that is the case, then don’t lie to yourself. Don’t claim to a believer and think you’re going to heaven.
Instead, change your mind about your sinful condition – that’s called repentance. In other words, acknowledge that your sin has enslaved you and will condemn you. Then deliberately turn to Jesus and trust Him to save you from your sin. Call upon the Lord and ask Him to save you not only from Hell, but from the sin that condemns you to hell. Ask Him to change your life and make you fit for His Kingdom.
That’s true faith, so make sure your faith is real. Make sure you’re a true believer.
And if you’re not so sure, open God’s Word and ask God to examine your heart.
Hebrews 4:12-13 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. (ESV)
God’s Word slices to the HEART of the matter, and God knows what’s in YOUR heart. So open this Book and ask God to reveal to you what’s really there on the inside.
Just a few years ago (in late 2012) 75-year-old Marion Shurtleff purchased a Bible in a used book store near her home in San Clemente, California. After making her purchase and returning home, she discovered a couple of folded pages tucked in the middle of the Bible.
The contents of the yellowed notebook sheets contained a child's handwriting that looked familiar. To her amazement, Shurtleff discovered her name at the top of the first page. When she looked closer, she realized that she was actually reading a four-page essay she had written as a ten-year-old to earn a merit badge for the Girls Scouts in Covington, Kentucky—more than 2,000 miles from where she had just purchased the Bible.
By her own account, Shurtleff was deeply moved. “I opened the Bible and there was my name,” Shurtleff said in a phone interview from her home. “I recognized my handwriting. I was shaking, literally. I was crying.” (Brian Mains, “Marion Shurtleff makes amazing discovery in used Bible, finds childhood essay she wrote 65 years ago,” WCPO Digital, 5-28-13; www.Preaching Today.com)
No one knows how an essay written 65 years previously ended up in a Bible halfway across the country, but one thing is certain. When you look deeply into God’s Word, you can see your name there, as well; you can see people just like you: people who pursue faith and hope in God, people who also battle depression, doubt, lust, and pride, believers and unbelievers alike, honestly portrayed, that will help you reveal what’s truly in your own heart.
Are you tired of the life you’re living these days, about ready to give up? Please, don’t lose your hope. Instead, Be sure of God’s Rest; and if you’re not sure, strive to be sure of that Rest. Open God’s Word and examine your heart to make sure you have truly trusted Christ as your Savior. Because if that’s the case, if you’re a true believer, then your best days are yet ahead.
It will be worth it all when we see Jesus.
Life’s trials will seem so small when we see Him.
One glimpse of His dear face, all sorrow will erase;
So bravely run the race, till we see Christ. (Esther Kerr Rusthoi)
